Hi all
So I'm currently thinking of doing Chinese at uni and I was wondering if anyone has any recommendations for unis that have good Chinese courses? I was looking at sheffield, Cardiff, Manchester Leeds and a couple more. Are any of you studying Chinese at uni now? If so, what are your courses like?

How do you define 'good'? Cambridge, Oxford and SOAS probably offer the most comprehensive Chinese degrees, but if you're not interested in classical Chinese, ancient history or literature then these places are not for you.

I dare say, Bruce. And your English, while apparently not perfect, is likely better than will be this fellow's even after he has completed his degree.

Not just yours, either: there are tens and possibly hundreds of millions of Chinese chaps who have been studying Engish since they were kneehigh to a whatsit. Tens of thousands of these are now struggling to reverse park their cars at British universities.

Which all obliges me to wonder after the marketability of a BA in Chinese.

But of course if the OP is only fascinated by the Qing Dynasty or whatever then why not.

(Original post by cambio wechsel)
I dare say, Bruce. And your English, while apparently not perfect, is likely better than will be this fellow's even after he has completed his degree.

Not just yours, either: there are tens and possibly hundreds of millions of Chinese chaps who have been studying Engish since they were kneehigh to a whatsit. Tens of thousands of these are now struggling to reverse park their cars at British universities.

Which all obliges me to wonder after the marketability of a BA in Chinese.

But of course if the OP is only fascinated by the Qing Dynasty or whatever then why not.

your Chinese history is good. I am pleasure to talk with you about the history.

(Original post by cambio wechsel)
I dare say, Bruce. And your English, while apparently not perfect, is likely better than will be this fellow's even after he has completed his degree.

Not just yours, either: there are tens and possibly hundreds of millions of Chinese chaps who have been studying Engish since they were kneehigh to a whatsit. Tens of thousands of these are now struggling to reverse park their cars at British universities.

Which all obliges me to wonder after the marketability of a BA in Chinese.

But of course if the OP is only fascinated by the Qing Dynasty or whatever then why not.

I would honestly go abroad for a degree in Mandarin. If it is historical and cultural interests, going to one of the East Asian countries would also definitely be better in terms of access to resources and research. However, one thing that I think makes it hard for British people to study abroad is the language because all teaching is in Mandarin and many people's Mandarin level in high school in East Asian countries end up being higher than British people who finished a BA degree in Mandarin.

I think going abroad for one year to learn the language in a language studies program (I think Beijing Foreign Studies University has one, NTU in Taiwan definitely has one, and I think Peking and Tsinghua both have these programs as well) would be more beneficial in terms of learning the language using immersion at a faster rate than a BA degree in Mandarin.

However like you said, if the OP has a cultural/historical interest in China, a BA degree in Mandarin is definitely ok.

(Original post by LMJT)
Hi all
So I'm currently thinking of doing Chinese at uni and I was wondering if anyone has any recommendations for unis that have good Chinese courses? I was looking at sheffield, Cardiff, Manchester Leeds and a couple more. Are any of you studying Chinese at uni now? If so, what are your courses like?

I studied Chinese Studies at Sheffield Uni, so if you have any questions, let me know.

Hi, sorry to piggyback on this thread. I was just also thinking about applying for a Chinese degree.
I would mainly be interested in the courses offered at:
Cambridge
Durham
Warwick
UCL
Does anyone have have any ideas on if this is a good degree to do.
The reason I like the courses at these unis is because they have a lot of focus on culture and you are able to study the politics of china.
In the future I would like to work in the foreign office or international relations in general.

(Original post by sophia1928)
Hi, sorry to piggyback on this thread. I was just also thinking about applying for a Chinese degree.
I would mainly be interested in the courses offered at:
Cambridge
Durham
Warwick
UCL

(Original post by Snufkin) If you look on the SOAS website, it says "Arabic, Hausa, Hindi, Indonesian, Persian, Swahili, Thai, and Turkish may be combined with French, which is taught at University College London UCL"